


hands, wrists, teeth

by mildkat



Series: escapril 2020 [21]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anxiety, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23782291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildkat/pseuds/mildkat
Summary: After years of knowing (and loving) Asahi, Nishinoya has come up with a trick.
Relationships: Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu
Series: escapril 2020 [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685971
Comments: 4
Kudos: 76





	hands, wrists, teeth

**Author's Note:**

> hello, happy escapril day twenty-one! as always, the title is the prompt. as the tag says, this fic touches on anxiety and general unwellness. 
> 
> enjoy!

After years of knowing (and loving) Asahi, Nishinoya has known every inch of him. This of course, includes his anxiety. It’s gone by many names with different people. Daichi and Suga call it _timidness_ , his family calls it cowardice, and for a long time Asahi didn’t call it anything. It was Nishinoya’s own insistence, because it was so painfully obvious to him, that they refer to it as what it was. “Why call it anything else? There’s no point in running away from it, you have to tackle it head on.” He remembers saying this to Asahi. Whereas Asahi has spent their years together holding him steady, pulling him back down to earth, he’s spent it pushing Asahi to barrel through life, to confront his anxiety. 

Whatever you want to call it—anxiety, timidness, blues—somewhere along the way, Nishinoya’s become a seasoned veteran. For him, it’s a point of pride. Partner of the year, for many consecutive years. To aid with Asahi’s varying symptoms, he’s come up with a trick: hands, wrists, teeth. 

-

He starts with hands.

When he can feel Asahi slipping away from him, retreating back to a dark and isolated place, he would play with his hands. He would gingerly trace veins along his palm. He would challenge him to thumb wrestling, chopsticks, or rock-paper-scissors. He would press it against his own cheek. _Hey, I’m here. Stay with me._

-

When that doesn’t work, he moves on to wrists. 

He would wrap his tiny hands around Asahi’s thick wrists and pull him in any direction. Up from the bed, where he would refuse to get up, or away from the wall, where he would linger. He would find Asahi’s pulse, and hold it against Asahi’s ear. _See? You’re alive. You’re fine. You’re okay._

-

And when all else fails, there’s teeth. 

If they’re alone (which is almost always the case, there’s something about being in public that makes Asahi repress everything until they’re back behind closed doors), Nishinoya cuddles up next to him, and bites whatever his mouth can latch onto. His shoulder, his leg, his neck. He’s wondered if this is a cannibal thing, or a weird sex thing, but it’s ultimately a Noya thing. He used to do it when they first started dating, when it was all playful and aggressive. He’d do it when he his feelings for Asahi bubbled up his chest and drove him crazy, driving him to sink his teeth into his shocked boyfriend’s flesh. 

Now, many moons later, that feeling has hardly gone away. It’s just more tamed, somehow. Deeper and controlled. But it would still come out. His own feelings would grow hot and irrational when he feels Asahi slipping away from him, frustrated at himself for being helpless, that he reverts back to his sixteen-year-old self. The one who’s all fire and gesture and _Asahi_. 

This last resort, admittedly, is a bad one. Sixteen-year-old Noya wouldn’t be much help to Asahi now, but they’re still figuring it out.

**Author's Note:**

> obviously, this is a dumb fic and is not at all prescriptive of how to cope with anxiety. 
> 
> thanks so much for reading! as always, comments/kudos would be a dream x


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